Spotlight on our Writers' Favorite Articles, Part 2

Dave's Garden is fortunate to have a diverse and talented group of writers. They live in a wide range of climates and enjoy a broad spectrum of gardening activities. For this Saturday Spotlight, we asked them to tell us what their favorite article was, and why. Their choices will give you some insight and let you get to know them a bit better.

This is the second installment spotlighting our writing team's favorite articles. We hope you enjoy their thoughts about why they chose these paticular pieces. If you missed the earlier article, check out the first installment at this link. We'll be back next month with another article spotlighting various favorites from some of our team.

Bookerc1 writes: My recent article on Monet's Gardens: Living Works of Art, is one of my favorites because it combines three of my passions: gardening, art, and reading! I think part of the reason I relate to Monet's work on such an emotional level is his very evident love of the beauty he saw in nature, and his desire to shape that beauty into something less fleeting. As a gardener, I can relate to that urge to capture the moment when a garden bed really comes into its own, and to record the way my garden changes across the seasons and the years. I never intended to write about Monet's garden when I first began reading about it, but the more I learned, the more I wanted to share the wonder with other gardeners who would also appreciate the time and skill he put into developing his outdoor spaces.

Palmbob: My favorite article, even though it was written and thrown together in the 'dark ages' and probably full of errors, is Welcome to my Painful, Toxic Garden. I like this article because it lets me show off my garden a bit, and harp upon one of my biggest pet peeves, the paranoia surrounding toxic plants.

can2grow: A favorite among my articles on Dave's Garden is "Pretty Yellow Bows Adorn a Child's Easter." Writing this article took me back to my childhood in rural Mississippi. Times were hard for my family of seven children. Living from day to day and obtaining life's bare necessities seemed a monumental task that left no room for frivolities. Large yellow bows that decorated the trees where our Easter egg hunt was to take place was an unimagined extravagance that I have never forgotten. From that experience I learned that small things can bring joy to others and that enchanting moments can happen even in the face of adversity.

jjacques: My favorite article so far is 'Thym, Romarin et Ciste, la Garrigue en Fleurs' issued a few months ago. It differs from my article which usually are about tropical plants and places as I live in the tropics. This one was written after a delicious stay in Southern France where I had the chance to roam the 'garrigue' with my mother as she lives there. So it was a double pleasure of discovering the fascinating Mediterrenean flora and doing so with a beloved person. On a pure writer sense I like it because I think it makes one feeling he is really strolling through the area, with the smell of all those aromatic plants, the cicadas songs and the white stones rolling under the soles. The extra dimension of the article was given by the water-colors my mother offered me to use for illustrating the text.

Melody writes: My favorite article is, Passing From Hand to Hand; the History of Heirloom Vegetables. I have a deep respect for those who came before me and am connected to them by the seeds I plant. In this age of supermarkets and faceless food, we've lost a vital link to our heritage and have forgotton what ties us to the earth. The heirlooms give us an unbroken line of gardeners, passing seeds from one generation to the next. I can touch life-sustaining seeds carefully saved by native peoples, or connect to great-great grandparents as they carved out a life in a new country. The seeds are tangible proof that someone in the past was looking toward the future...the eternal optimists.

We hope you enjoyed this look at our writers' favorites and encourage you to use our searchable Articles Library, where our past articles are available to all members.

About Melody Rose

About Melody Rose

I come from a long line of Kentuckians who love the Good Earth. I love to learn about every living thing, and love to share what I've learned. Photography is one of my passions, and all of the images in my articles are my own, except where credited.